0018 018 Filling my heart and opening my mouth
Qi Yu lost his grip on the knife and fork, and the tip of the knife landed on the plate with a crisp clinking sound. Qi Shuyao, sitting opposite him, glanced at him briefly before looking away.
Are you serious?
"What do you mean, real or fake... You don't know? I thought you knew."
A dinner led the father and daughter to a strange, contradictory understanding of each other, leaving them both feeling turbulent and uneasy.
"Um, Dad, I didn't really have a puppy love. It was just, I was just curious, so I gave it a try. Well, not exactly a try, it was just... sigh, I liked him back then, and he could tell, so we got together."
No one asked her, but she confessed everything herself, her head bowed low, as if she had done something wrong.
After a moment of silence, Qi Yu finally spoke.
"What did you two do together?"
"What did you do? Oh, just kissed, we kissed."
"Where did you kiss me?"
"...this, here..."
She suddenly felt embarrassed to speak, and only raised her finger to the corner of her lips, tapping it with her fingertip, moving it further and further up her lips.
She didn't get angry as expected, or rather, she knew that Qi Yu wasn't the type to get angry over something like this, and this wasn't the place to lose her temper. Both of them stiffly gripped their knives and forks again, without looking up.
Another topic was silently swept away, and his appetite vanished along with it. Qi Yu poked at the now-cold steak a couple of times, then started another conversation.
"What did you go out with Tang Qian for? And why did you have to go out during school hours?"
"That's what I begged her for."
Qi Yu raised his eyes to look at her.
"Dad, I can't find Sheng Sheng. I've tried contacting everyone I can, but she's vanished into thin air. I went to find Sister Yunyun, she knows so many people, but I can't find her either. Do you think she might have been kidnapped? Or maybe the Pei family kidnapped her whole family?"
She was genuinely worried. In just a few words, tears welled up in her eyes again, and she put down her cutlery. Her broken voice revealed her distress.
Qi Yu reached out and wiped away the tears that had fallen from her eyes. The sadness he had just felt was suddenly suppressed. The little girl in front of him was still that quirky little girl, nestled in his arms.
"Have you ever considered that their family deliberately cut off all contact with China?"
"Huh? So you can't even tell me?"
Qi Shuyao's eyes, still wet with tears, shone even brighter, and the clear reflection of his image within them explained everything.
"Hey...it's all your fault."
The little girl sighed deeply and buried her face in his hands.
She slowly shuffled closer and closer to Qi Yu, moving to a position next to him. She grabbed his sleeve to wipe her face, smelled the alcohol she had picked up the night before, and then threw it away with a look of disgust.
This feeling of having something lost and then found filled Qi Yu completely. After a week, he finally had time to relax. He looked at the people around him without showing any casual expression, and even his shoulders slumped.
As darkness fell, Qi Yu led Qi Shuyao back to Yangcheng. Looking at the bags of various sizes, he couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat.
Qi Shuyao was indeed tired after walking all afternoon. She was drowsy in the car and didn't even realize that her hand and face had been touched. She only woke up when she got out of the car. The car was parked in front of the main entrance, and Butler Yan was directing people to move the newly delivered large boxes into the house.
"What did you buy this time?" Qi Yu stepped forward to support his unsteady daughter.
"Paints and canvases..."
Qi Shuyao yawned widely and stretched at the gate of the courtyard. Just then, the night light came on, making her slightly red eyes shine even brighter.
Qi Yu suddenly remembered what had happened before, turned around abruptly in front of her, and grabbed her arm.
"Don't associate with Pei Youwen anymore."
"What is it now?" Qi Shuyao was clearly not in the mood to react.
"He's not a good person, stay away from him."
"No, they were very polite when they spoke to us before."
"What kind of look do you give people?"
"What's wrong with my eyes again? No, why do you always leave things unsaid lately, and why do you always jump to conclusions so forcefully? What, your temper at home has grown since you got promoted? I'm not your subordinate, and I don't have to lower my head and endure your scolding."
Am I insulting you?
"Look at your attitude!"
Qi Shuyao returned his words verbatim, lifted her foot to walk past him and go inside, but was pulled by the arm.
He didn't want her to know too much, but now communication was impossible. He seemed to see the future: the bright little girl in front of him was swallowed up by darkness, walking into the boundless mud, unable to escape. He held her with all his might, but pressed her deeper, as if only by pushing her away, far away from all of this, could he save her.
One thing after another piled up, robbing Qi Yu of his brief moment of relaxation, yet he secretly wished to extend that time a little longer.
"It's Dad's fault. I was very rude today. Can Yao Yao forgive me?"
He crouched down to meet her gaze, following her line of sight. Unable to avoid him, Qi Shuyao leaned back and sat on the large, unopened box. Qi Yu then crouched down as well, looking up slightly.
Today she wore a short skirt that just reached her knees, but when she sat down, the skirt couldn't cover her knees anymore. Although the wound from the bike ride before school started had healed, a light scar remained on her skin. She has a tendency to form keloids, and the marks left from a fall when she was a child are still there.
"How did this happen? When were you injured?"
Qi Yu gently touched the wound with his fingers. The skin no longer hurt, but the calluses on his fingers felt more sensitive to the skin. Qi Shuyao silently looked at her leg without saying a word, her head always lowered.
He anxiously examined the rest of her exposed skin. There was a scar on her arm and leg, left from a fall when she was a child. But now, there were many other scars of varying sizes, some deep and some shallow, some raised and reddish.
"What happened? Why do you have so many scars? How did you get this? Did someone bully you?"
Qi Shuyao pulled her arm back, her hands sliding across her skin, constantly undulating something that wasn't there, until she wiped away everything he had touched.
"No one bullied me, nothing happened, I'm going back to my room."
She had just stood up when Qi Yu pressed her shoulders down again, placing both his hands on her shoulders and gripping them tightly.
"Did you do that yourself? Why did you treat yourself like that? If you feel uncomfortable, tell Daddy..."
"What are you saying! Do you care about me? In any case, your work is the most important thing. You don't come home for week after week because of work. I can't find you even if I want to. You don't know what I'm doing, and you don't care or ask. As your power and status increase, you only need your subordinates. You don't need your family. You didn't need a wife in the first half of your life, and you don't need a daughter in the second half."
Qi Shuyao struggled to break free, but the force of those hands grew stronger and stronger. The closer the relationship, the more likely it is to hurt someone. This week was the longest they had ever been apart since they were children. They knew each other better than anyone else, but before they could show any concern for each other, they had already learned revenge without any instruction.
She vented her frustration and resentment from the past few weeks, and she kept crying. She had cried enough in the past two weeks, and her mind was foggy and she felt dizzy and lightheaded.
Without a sound, the servants around them had already left, leaving only the two of them.
She used to joke around and say things like what would happen if her family found out. Now that she's really become the subject of gossip, she doesn't care anymore. She feels the big hand on her shoulder loosen its grip, and with a little effort, she breaks free from Qi Yu's hold and runs upstairs.
The man behind her hesitated for two seconds as he looked at her empty hand before catching up and grabbing her at the top of the stairs. Qi Shuyao struggled to break free on the two-step staircase, but he still grabbed her arm and held her tightly in his arms. Her back was pressed against his chest, so tightly that she could feel the obvious muscle contours outlined on her back with every breath.
His face was buried in her hair, and with a gentle sway from side to side, it slipped into the strands, resting against her shoulder and pressing down on the protruding bone. He kept repeating "I'm sorry," but his tone wasn't one of apology; it was more of a desperate plea for her to stay. His large hands were constantly groping her arm, like when he gently coaxed her when she cried as a child, or like he desperately needed comfort, to prove that she was still there. Those words were just angry words, all lies.
"dad……"
She was a little scared and could only repeat the syllable monotonously. He had once told her that she had called him "Dad" when she was a few months old and that her eyes always held a smile when she looked at him. This innate instinct had now become her lifesaver.
The monotonous syllables, when they reached their ears, actually washed away their rationality. Qi Shuyao suppressed her wildly beating heart and loosened the arms wrapped around her waist.
Yes, he is her father.
Qi Yu finally let go of her completely, and before she could turn around, he quickly rubbed the corner of his eye.
Qi Shuyao turned around, her legs felt a little weak, but she stood still, supporting herself.
"Yaoyao, Daddy was too confused today and said a lot of things I shouldn't have said. I'm sorry, Daddy is sorry. Please forgive Daddy, okay? You must forgive Daddy."
Before she could say anything, she was pulled into a hug again. This time it was a real embrace, chest to chest, the pressure of his heartbeat slowly merging with her own. His large, hot hands were exploring her back. She was standing on two flights of stairs, just enough for him to bury his face in her wet neck.
"Yaoyao, Daddy will definitely come back to be with you every day from now on, take you to school, pick you up from school, listen to everything you say, watch you every moment, and always watch you... You can date and find a boyfriend if you want! You can... Just stay by my side, okay? Let me be with you, I can't bear not seeing you."
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